CNN’s Harry Enten has identified the one person polls show to be more popular than Donald Trump among young Republicans.
But it is not a politician: It is the podcaster Joe Rogan.
On Thursday, the network’s chief data analyst dissected polling from The New York Times that revealed Rogan’s favorability among that group bested not only 80-year-old Trump, but Vice President JD Vance, 41, and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, 57.
While Rogan, 58, had a net favorability of 62 points among Republicans, those leaning Republican, or those who voted for Trump in 2024, Trump only reached +28 points and Carlson +18.
“If you want to appeal to young Republicans... you want to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast,” Enten said, calling the podcaster and UFC commentator “the young Republican whisperer.”
Enten then compared how Rogan measured up against Vance and California Gov. Gavin Newsom in overall favorability. Rogan was up two points among all voters—better than Vance and Newsom being underwater at -11 and -19, respectively.
The CNN segment on Rogan besting Trump and others comes as the president has been mired by poor polling on key issues like the economy and his war against Iran, which he has unsuccessfully tried to end. In a Sunday night Truth Social post, Trump even seemed to swap his disapproval rating for his approval rating. He claimed a “59 percent” level of support, when in reality, his national average has been hovering around 40 percent, accoring to Silver Bulletin, election forecaster Nate Silver’s Substack.
Meanwhile, a new congressional forecast shows Republicans losing the House and three seats in the Senate, where they currently have a 53-47 majority. According to Decision Desk HQ, Democrats have a 61 percent chance to retake the lower chamber and all the presidential investigatory powers that come with it. They also have a 3.5-point lead on the generic ballot.
In 2024, Rogan emphatically endorsed Trump, whom he hosted on his podcast in the lead-up to Election Day. This week, he hosted Vance, who admitted the Trump administration was “guilty” of botching the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“If people want to say we mishandled the Epstein release—guilty,” Vance said. “We did mishandle it, especially the communications of it.”
Vance went on to blame former Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom Trump reportedly fired in part because of the Epstein issue.
In the interview, Vance also falsely claimed that the Trump administration released “all” the Epstein files, when 2.5 million documents still remain unsealed.
CNN’s Enten said the upside being a guest on Rogan’s show outweighs the drawbacks.
“The bottom line is this: Joe Rogan hits a lot of audiences, and you know what? Going on with him—it helps, it doesn’t hurt,“ he said.
Anchor John Berman agreed: “It’s a lot of reward, and not much risk. He doesn’t exactly ask really hard questions.”
